Grave yards and crying babies!

I will warn you right off this is a pity party post so if you are not into that do not read. I was frustrated with Lila not sleeping well and was going to post about that when I read a post on one of my friends blogs about the same thing, I am very glad to know that I am at least not the only one out there, however if anyone has any helpful suggestions please post. Lila is not my first bad sleeper either, you think I would have learned some tricks from the other kids, and I have several books but they are packed away in the non-necessity boxes out in the garage, not that I have the energy to read them.
So back to the beginning...when Lila was younger she slept very well, she would go a good 7 hours (every once in a while longer), then one day about a month ago, she decided she didn't want to sleep anymore and that she had to eat every three to four hours at night. I thought it was because she was teething and not feeling well and that is probably where I made the mistake, if I would have from the very beginning let her cry it out we may not be in this mess. I did try to let her cry for a couple nights I would wait a while and then try to just pat her and not pick her up, leave the room again with her still crying and then do it over and over again until at some crazy time in the morning say 2 o'clockish I would cave and just nurse her so I could finally get some sleep. I gave up on that really fast. So any help would be useful to me at this point!
My second pathetic subject is the grave yard shift, now I am very happy it is only for a month and Scott still has a great schedule (it could be every night), but Scott has to work nights for the month of January, everyone in his department has to have a turn apparently to make sure they know how to do things right in the night. But this is not his first time on the grave yard shift so I knew before he started I was not going to like it and I kept telling myself I could handle it for two weeks it would be fine, then I found out it was three weeks which made me even more depressed and now two days into the second week with a baby that is out of control I am giving my self a pity party. On a positive note, it is a three day weekend so I can attempt to sleep in or nap a little for the next few days. Sorry for anyone who actually read this post I just had to vent for a minute!